The network evolution as a result of the recent telecommunications bill has resulted in the need for global title databases that require complex and precise internetwork coordination to ensure proper delivery of Signalling System No. 7 (SS7) Signalling Connection Control Part (SCCP) messages. This newly added requirement and complexity has increased the burden on network administrators and administration systems. Any inaccuracies occurring during the provisioning process of the global title databases by the network administrators and administration systems can result in SCCP message looping. SCCP message looping occurs as a message is routed repeatedly through a number of network elements in the telecommunications network, without ever reaching its final destination.
The recently approved version of ANSI SS7-SCCP-1996 standards provide procedures for the prevention of SCCP message looping. These procedures, however, require network services that are sending SCCP messages utilize the extended unitdata (XUDT) and extended unitdata service (XUDTS) defined messages. The XUDT and XUDTS messages have an SCCP hop counter parameter that is used to count the number of times a message has been processed by a network element, so that the message can be terminated if it has traversed a predetermined number of network elements.
Currently, XUDT and XUDTS messages are not supported in the telecommunications network. It is very costly for network providers to modify existing services from the UDT and UDTS message formats which are currently in use to the generation of XUDT and XUDTS message formats. The modification would require changes to every service switching point (SSP), signal transfer point (STP), and service control point (SCP) in the service provider's network.